What it means
Aerial lifts put a person in a basket or on a platform and raise them to work overhead. The family includes bucket trucks, articulating and telescoping boom lifts, scissor lifts and vertical towers.
Each type has its own controls, its own limits and its own ways to go wrong. Boom lifts can tip or fling an occupant. Bucket trucks near power lines add electrical risk. Scissor lifts get driven over holes and slopes. Follow the maker's manual for rated load, wind, slope and fall protection.
Operators need training on the type of lift they use. The lift gets a check before use, and a lift with a defect doesn't go up.
Why it matters
People fall, get crushed against overhead steel or ride a machine as it tips. A good pre-use check, a ground check and a trained operator remove many of those chances.
What it looks like on a site
- The operator checks the lift before use: controls, guards, emergency lowering, tires, outriggers and leaks.
- The ground is checked for slope, holes, soft spots and overhead lines before the lift is set up.
- Fall protection is worn as the maker and your procedure require, and tied to the anchor point on the lift.
- A ground person watches the area and can lower the lift in an emergency.
- Defects get tagged out and recorded before the lift is used again.
This is general information, not legal advice. Check the current rule and your own procedures. Back to the glossary